US panel calls on China to end organ harvesting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has endorsed a resolution calling on China to immediately end what it calls state-sanctioned harvesting of human organs from prisoners.

Human rights groups have long criticized China for taking organs for transplant from executed prisoners. China said in 2012 it plans to abolish the practice in three to five years.

The resolution says there are “persistent and credible reports” of state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners including large numbers from the Falun Gong meditation movement, which has been banned in China, and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups.

It also calls for a State Department investigation into transplant practices in China.

The measure now goes to the full House.

The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.